coast, n. border of land near the sea , sea shore (The Concise Oxford Dictionary)

Since the Buller river begins its journey at our lake we consider ourselves honorary Coasters. For anyone who doesn't live in New Zealand, I should explain that if you say " West Coast" people naturally assume that you're talking about the South Island (and, oddly enough, if you say "East Coast", they assume you mean the North Island - but I digress).By the nature of where it is, the West Coast is almost a separate country - accessible from the rest of the South Island only by gorges and mountain passes , it's one of the more remote places in New Zealand. And that's how the locals like it.The coast folk have traditionally been involved with mining (both coal and gold) and fishing , as well as other interesting industries such as sphagnum moss farming, whitebaiting and brewing fine beer. They have a reputation for being straight up , honest and tough but fair.The country itself is challenging - the often wild Tasman sea arrives at the end its long journey from Australia and surges up the beach to fling itself at the cliffs , sometimes trumpeting upwards through spectacular blowholes. The road clings to the edge of the cliffs , winding its way over steep bluffs and down alongside lonely beaches. The cliffs are thickly clad with almost impenetrable rainforest , which threatens to smother everything in its way. I reckon if you had a house there you'd be checking each day to see if the bush was creeping nearer.The climate? Well, the coast has a reputation for a huge amount of rain, but to be fair, this all falls in a short space of time and in between the weather is often quite temperate. This is the best place in the country to watch a sunset.It can be sobering , though , to sit and watch this sea and remind yourself that we live on quite a small , narrow island and that people on other small islands are faced with the realities of sea level change - at least we have mountains that we can retreat to, not everyone is that lucky.Each time we visit I'm drawn to the wildness of the West Coast , always a good painting subject.I hope that you enjoy this one of the view back towards Punakaiki - and that if you haven't visited the Coast yet that you'll get down there...